from the old to the new...

my poor truck after sliding into a light pole on christmas eve eve... you can't see the V8 anymore, it looks more like a checkmark...

and here's the replacement, a Hemi V8 - even more power :)

i know it looks like a short bed but it's really 6 foot, i promise!

O Tannenboing, O Tannenboing...

another random blog find: the tannenboing, retail price $795.00 + $75 shipping which is currently being covered by the website but still, $795.00 for a tree which, while happily sustanable and eco-friendly, large & modern looking does remind me of the paper trees children make in school and much more reminds me of something my cat would try to climb and the dog would try to jump through to get to the cat hiding behind it if the cost was more reasonable i may be tempted to try it.. might be, might not

again with the ugly shoes...

...or maybe it's just her toes that look weird in them i found this on a blog i've never visited but it was referenced from a crafter's blog.. they did a feature on his woman's closet, 10 of her best outfits and i noticed several pair of shoes i'd never wear, maybe they're just not my style. your thoughts?

killer shoes and a smashed truck...

so i'm sitting at home, snuggled up under my fav blanket (thanks sara), waiting to hear from the rental car company as to when i'll be getting my replacement vehicle since i slamed my truck into a pole last night. no injuries & no other drivers/vehicles involved and luckily it was after work and josh was able to come pick me (and my groceries) up and bring us home. so i'm sitting here checking email, looking at random news stories on aol and come across the headline 'models refuse to wear scary item' and think 'huh, what could be so scary that models would refuse to wear it? i mean, they wear undies down a runway that one could never wear under anything, the victoria's secret girls wear 6' tall sparkly bows with said undies, and i've seen runway models in chocolate dresses that begin to melt under the lights causing a slipping hazzard, what could be so scary that they'd refuse???' so i click on the link and see these:

'armadillo heels' from alexander mcqueen and i wonder... what is it with this guy that he is so fashionably brilliant that people trust his judgment to actually manufacture shoes that look like this? ya'll should know that i love shoes, fun shoes, way-too-high shoes, pinchy shoes, sparkly shoes, comfy boots, not-so-comfy boots, etc but these, are just plain wrong! amazing shoes are meant to make a woman look and feel her best, not look and feel like a weird 1960's alien. honestly, if you ever see me looking at/trying on/seriously considering any shoes anything like thise, smack me off the heels and shake me until i realize that it's a bad idea...

oh, and during the writing of this i received the call from hertz and was told that i could pick up my standard size car anytime (yahoo!)... except that they don't re-open until saturday morning at 9am, thankfully i don't work until 12

great friends, great food, great gifts...

awesome cfs with the ayo-raders... got this amazing bracelet which, hint hint to santa* would go really well with the shoes i really love

*no, i did not get the shoes for christmas yet and, if i do, it better be from santa or someone else with a large disposable income, the price is redic and i don't honestly expect anyone to purchase them for me but a girl can dream, right?

baking anyone...

as in, does anyone want to finish my holiday baking? i actually don't have too much more to do, just make my cutout cookies, frost them, make macaroons & chocolate cover some pretzel sticks, easy peasy. today (feeling very ambitious) my sister & i set out to make a double batch of kiflies (amazing hungarian pastry with walnut filling), cutout cookies and a few other things. We started around 10 this morning and even though we raced to the finish around 5pm we still didn't get everything finished. Now, I'm sure that some of you have no idea what kiflies are or why it would take 7 hours to make a double batch but really, the process is actually much longer. It started last night with my sister making a double batch of dough for the pastry which not only has to be made, but kneeded for a long time and then rolled into individual balls so that they can be refrigerated overnight before being rolled flat (like a mini pie-crust but paper thin), filled and then rolled back up. The process isn't necessarially difficult, the volume is. A single batch of dough and filling makes about 10-12 dozen kiflies and we made a double batch and ended up with just over 20 dozen. That means that 20 dozen balls of dough needed to be rolled, filled & then re-rolled and baked then cooled and i only have one rack in my oven so we could only bake a tray at a time. on the upside, we finished with the kiflies (thanks to mom, casi & paige for helping). lisa got all of her cut-outs made (thanks to rockne for eating a little less than 1/4 of her dough, i'll tell that story later) and i made 2 batches of buttercream frosting for her cookies. i made my batch of cutout cookie dough (thanks paula deen for our new fav recipe for that (again, i'll tell it later) and after we cleaned up the mess from that it was 5pm and lisa had to get home to go to dinner for a friend's birthday and i made tree & gingerman shaped brownies and my peanut butter sandwich cookies and got them covered in chocolate... i have a couple presents to wrap tonight and would like to make some macaroons before bed but i'm not sure if i'll get the energy to do all of that...

santa baby...

...i've been an awful good girl
and yes, i realize that they retail for $1025 but, i'm sure, if anyone has a hook-up, it would be santa, right?

christmas decorating...

the start of our christmas decorating... my mantle which will get further decorated by the incoming christmas cards, and my new rosemary tree, now decorated gently so i can still use it for cooking

and my very sleepy hosey, she can't rest while we're decorating because she's too busy chasing the kitty while he inspects our work...

papa can you hear me...

or can anyone? i'm not in a weird mood, i'm just hoping i have zillions of readers that will give me some ideas to make the best christmas compilation for the cocoa party and maybe make a cd for friends and family as part of the homemade christmas presents i'm doing this year... my only real must-haves are 'go tell it on the mountain' a la james taylor & 'i want a hippopotamus for christmas' by gayla peevey (if you haven't heard it, look back a few posts, it's hilarious!). i downloaded the freebies from oprah the past couple of years so those are good but i need more people's fav. songs. i know my sister's christmas isn't complete without bing crosby but what are your must haves?

cocoa party...

working on recipes for saturday's cocoa party. i've narrowed down the hot cocoa recipes to: belgian white chocolate (from harry & david), peanut butter hot chocolate, cinnamon chip hot chocolate, peppermind stick hot chocolate, mexican hot chocolate & vanilla hot chocolate. I think someone is bringing the ingredients for chocolate martinis and i know i'll be making pudding shots. For garnish we'll have homemade marshmallows and purchased large & mini marshmallows. We'll have real whipped cream & redi-whip, chocolate shavings, cocoa, cinnamon & powdered sugar in shakers and peppermint sticks. We'll have some mole wings done in the crockpot and maybe another non-dessert but i'm not sure what... if anyone has any ideas please let me know, i've got until saturday morning to nail it all down, that's when i'll be going to the grocery

to the whiners, complainers, brats & not nice people...

if you don't like what someone is status updating/blogging/etc, don't cry and whine about it trying to get that person in trouble for no good reason, either talk directly to the person or just stop reading. if you are a blogger/status updater/twitter-er/etc and someone whines about your post suggest they just stop reading... your blog/etc is therapy for you, not for them, unless you're being hateful for no reason (ie: racist/sexist/any other 'ist', that's different, you need to grow up and be an adult) it's way better to vent to your friends and make them laugh/feel better about their day/etc. than to keep it bottled up, that's why people go postal!

as for me, lesson learned, delete whiny brats & not nice people from your friends/readers list...

and, no, i did not get in trouble for something i blogged/status updated/etc, this is just a word to the wise based on the fact that i've heard some things recently that make me wonder what our society is coming to when people can't tell a funny story or complain about their brainless coworker in a fairly innocent way... aren't people allowed to have one of those days?

christmas favs...

fav kids: newest fav:

snuggle socks from life is good

fav christmas song:

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by Gayla Peevey

fav blog:

angelo:HOME

fav recipe:

Yum Yum Brownie Muffins from the Hungry Girl

my homies are the best...